Nicolette Larson -- French Waltz

 

A snow day has been declared for the Toronto area after getting the heaviest snowstorm in a couple of years. So I figure that the kids are either gleefully sleeping in or hitting the hills with their sleds. In addition, it is Valentine's Eve rather than Valentine's Day and I had already been planning to put this Reminiscings of Youth chestnut up even without the Valentine's Day reference, but the timing couldn't have been better regardless.

Last summer, I finally got around to welcome the late singer Nicolette Larson onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". A number of her songs were recurring tunes on AM radio here in Canada and at one point, I thought that she was actually as Canadian as maple syrup, only to find out many years later that she hailed from the state of Montana in the United States. One of those songs of hers was the cool and urban "Lotta Love" which was created by Neil Young.

Another song that hailed from her September 1978 debut album "Nicolette" was "French Waltz" which is about as different as can be from "Lotta Love". One reason that I had assumed that Larson was Canadian was the fact that she sang some of the song in French and that there was something rather Canadian and folksy about it. If it had been written and composed in Japan, I would have immediately pegged it as a Fashion Music tune. Anyways, "French Waltz" was another popular song on the AM airwaves for years and even before "Lotta Love", the song had become a favourite of mine to listen to and remember the old days by.

Interestingly enough, "French Waltz" had been created by Adam Mitchell. He had been born in Scotland but ended up in Toronto along with the rest of his family as a teenager, and it looks like at least the earlier years of his music career were spent in the Toronto area, so perhaps the Canadiana did seep into "French Waltz" after all.

As with "Lotta Love" as a ROY topic, I'm going to hit the September 29th issue of the Oricon charts to delve into what was popular at around the same time that "Nicolette" had come out. But I've already done the Top 3 there so let's go with the bottom three of that Top 20 chart.

18. Rie Nakahara -- Disco Lady (ディスコ・レディー)

19. Pink Lady -- Monster （モンスター）

20. Chiharu Matsuyama -- Kisetsu no Naka de （季節の中で）

Nicolette Larson -- Lotta Love

 

Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth article. Last week, I wrote about Roberta Flack's iconic 1973 cover of "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and though I had heard that classic on the radio a number of times when I was a boy, it took a drive home late at night to really infuse the wonder of it into me.

I've had a similar experience with Nicolette Larson's 1978 "Lotta Love" which was indeed a cover as well (to my surprise once more) of Neil Young's original 1976 recording, although that song wouldn't see the light of day until its inclusion in his 1978 album "Comes a Time". On Wikipedia, Young's contemplative original has been categorized as country rock; I would also add the adjective "soft" to the genre as well.

As mentioned, I'd heard Larson's version a number of times on AM radio as a kid, but as with "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Lotta Love" finally hit me when I was actually watching an episode of the CBS sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati". I forgot what the episode was all about but there was a scene of a Cincinnati sunset as the helicopter shot over the bridge and then "Lotta Love" came on, and I just thought that it was the most amazing collaboration of visual and aural. There was Andrew Love's boss saxophone, Plas Johnson on the flute (he was also the tenor saxophonist on the famous "Pink Panther" theme!), the disco strings and of course Larson's slightly raspy voice.

To me, Larson's "Lotta Love" wasn't country rock; it's been this amazing car stereo-friendly disco AOR tune that tells driver and passengers "Yup, welcome to the city!". It was a hit in both Canada and the US, reaching No. 4 and No. 8 respectively and then it hit the top spot on their respective Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening charts. Larson, who left us all way too early at the age of 45, didn't quite hit the heights of superstardom but was a very popular figure to her fans and on the radio with some of her other songs, one which I will be doing as another beloved example of ROY soon enough. By the way, below is the Neil Young original.

Larson's debut album "Nicolette" was released on September 29th 1978. I found the Oricon Top 10 chart for September 25th that year. What were the top 3 singles on that day?

1. Takao Horiuchi -- Kimi no Hitomi wa Ichi-man Boruto （君のひとみは１００００ボルト）

2. Pink Lady -- Toumei Ningen（透明人間）

3. Masanori Sera & Twist -- Hikigane（銃爪）